Tag Archives | Heavy Metal

The trio of teenage friends were accused and convicted of several child murders in Arkansas in 1993, with the evidence more or less amounting to their interest in heavy metal music and dark-colored clothing. DNA evidence since confirmed their innocence, turning them into a cause célèbre as symbols of legal injustice, ’90s-era hysteria over provocative music, and, more broadly, the human tendency to scapegoat outsiders. The Los Angeles Times writes:

The three men known as the “West Memphis 3,” who have been imprisoned for 18 years for a notorious 1993 child-murder case, have won their freedom in an Arkansas courtroom.

In an agreement with prosecutors, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin pleaded guilty to the murders of three 8-year-old boys in May 1993, but are able to claim they are innocent, an arrangement known as an “Alford plea.” The three men were released Friday after serving sentences of 18 years plus credit for time served.

You don’t need to guess the answer to this question – the Metallica guys and Lou are releasing an album of their collaboration. From the Metallica site:

A few months ago our own Kirk Hammett hinted at a new Metallica project that’s “not really 100 percent a Metallica record.” While Kirk may have jumped the gun a little (and has since been properly punished with a series of push-ups!), we are more than proud to announce that we have just completed recording a full length album that is a collaboration with none other than the legendary Lou Reed.

Ever since we had the pleasure of performing with Lou at the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009, we have been kicking around the idea of making a record together. Some of you astute Bay Area residents may have picked up news of recent Lou Reed sightings in the greater San Francisco area and we have indeed been working at our home studio at HQ on and off over the last few months.

Is revealing that he was abducted by aliens a good career move by Sammy Hagar, the sometime Van Halen frontman? This interview with Eric Spitznagel for MTV Hive will probably move a few copies of his new book Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, at least!

Okay, let’s just cut to the chase. I’m just going to come out and ask it. Have you ever been abducted by aliens?

I think I have.

What? Really? I was kidding. You seriously believe that?

[Laughs.] Now you’re making me sound like a crazy person.

How is that crazy? I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened to you.

Remember the story in the book, where I have a dream about being contacted by aliens in the foothills above Fontana?

Yeah, yeah, I’ve got the page right here. “I saw a ship and two creatures inside of this ship… And they were connected to me, tapped into my mind through some kind of mysterious wireless connection.” You’re telling me that wasn’t a dream?

Writing for Al Jazeera, Mark LeVine explores the uncanny popularity of dinosaur metal band Iron Maiden amongst a young, Middle Eastern fan base and “asks if heavy metal music offers a blueprint for modernization in the Middle East.” I certainly hope LeVine’s geopolitical thesis is correct — reconfiguring staid Mideast nations using the tenets of Maiden as a basis sounds brilliant, for the resultant national flags alone.

I first saw Iron Maiden in Dubai in 2007, at the Dubai Desert Rock Festival, which although only three years old was becoming known as the “Mecca for Middle Eastern metal”.

This was pre-crash Dubai, in all its excessive splendor, and the festival was filled to capacity with 20,000 metalheads, mostly Arabs, Iranians and South Asians, cheering, screaming and even crying during Maiden’s headlining show.

The members of Iron Maiden still recall that first Dubai show fondly, but in reality Dubai represented the very antithesis of everything Maiden has always stood for – consumption without reason, style over substance, the pursuit of wealth and celebrity without a solid foundation or sustainable principles.

io9’s Phil Freeman brings up the old chestnut of reptoid aliens secretly controlling our world, reminding me, at least, of the Montauk Project and David Icke’s Royal Family…

Why are these metal bands convinced that the world is secretly ruled by extraterrestrials called reptoids who are breeding with humans in their hidden caves?

If you believe reptoid “expert” David Icke, our planet is secretly ruled by extraterrestrials who walk on two legs, appear human, and live in tunnels and caves…when they’re not crossbreeding with humans to produce leaders like the Egyptian pharaohs, every U.S. president, and the Queen of England. Icke believes the reptoids are the same race, the Anunnaki, discussed in Babylonian creation mythology, and they are prominently featured in his books The Biggest Secret, Children of the Matrix, Tales From the Time Loop and Infinite Love is the Only Truth, all of which are sold as nonfiction.

Why are the Scandinavians so far ahead in everything? This is a brilliant idea: a band of clawed, Barney-like dinosaur creatures that play heavy metal, as a way to introduce young children to the world of mosh pits and headbanging. Hevisaurus, from Finland, is gaining a growing amount of attention, but sadly the United States is not included in their summer 2010 tour dates.